


Apple Sweet

by Measured



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Autumn, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 12:10:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2467823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-canon. Heather's not just stealing little trinkets or the apples of her family, but little bits of her resolve and affection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apple Sweet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Panny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panny/gifts).



Nephenee held her spear at ready. Her Meemaw went ahead, pure determination and steel in her tiny, bent frame. She heard no crunching of footsteps in the orchard, but she knew well that it wouldn't take much to have a raccoon or a fox to get into the chickens.

"You heard somethin', Meemaw?" Nephenee said.

"There's some polecat varmint up there." She pointed her walking stick up towards a single tree in the orchard. Her walking stick was almost as gnarled and lined with age as her face. 

"Nice to see you again, Nephenee," Heather said. She took a final bite of the apple and tossed it aside. Apple cores lay strew about the roots, and sticking out of overgrown grass.

Meemaw narrowed her eyes. "I was right."

Heather came down with grace, a fall of gold and purple. She rose up with just as much poise.

"You're the grandmother Nephenee was talking about? See, Nephenee and I are old friends, and very, very close. What's a few apples between friends?"

"That's almost a quarter of a basket---"

"Meemaw, don't be rude. I'm sure she didn't know," Nephenee cut in.

Heather brushed off her arms. Leaves had caught in her hair. Nephenee resisted the urge to push them away. It seemed too intimate a gesture under the sharp eye of her Meemaw. 

"Then I'll pay you back. It's hardly anything to get bent out of shape about," Heather said. There was an edge of annoyance in her voice, but she was too collected to say much more.

Which was saying something, as she'd seen Heather cut down with sharp words some of the men who tried to flirt with her. A girl as pretty as that was always catching eyes somewhere.

"Humph. We'll see how good the word of a thief is," Meemaw said.

"Yes, you'll _see_ ," Heather said.

She turned and left without another word, even a goodbye. Nephenee bent to pick up the cores. Might as well make sure the hogs got the scraps.

*

 

The leaves always made such good fertilizer for the crops that she'd gather them up, golden and moist into the mulch piles. She'd put her hands through the rich dark earth just to feel closer, just for the nostalgia of cold soil smell and new green shoots coming up. 

She heard a crack and looked back. It left her off guard for when the arm slipped between hers and pulled her closer to the leaf piles.

"Hah, I got you," Heather said. There were golden-brown leaves stuck to her cheeks, the front of her shirt, and some in her hair. 

"You probably don't wanna hide in those piles, they were near the cow pen," Nephenee said apologetically.

Heather let out a subdued shriek and jumped back. Nephenee couldn't help but laugh as Heather checked herself for patties.

"I don't see anythin', or smell anythin', I should say. I guess you done got lucky," she said.

She couldn't blame lady luck for favoring Heather. Who wouldn't want to favor such a pretty, charming girl?

"Oh, laugh at me, will you? You're getting leafy, too!" 

Before she could react, Heather had thrown several handfuls of damp leaves at her. However, leaf fights weren't quite as dramatic as a snowball fight. The leaves fell down harmlessly, and Heather had to get very close to even have them hit Nephenee at all.

Nephenee bent down and grabbed some leaves of her own, sticky in her hands with morning dew. She waited until Heather lunged at pressed it to her cheek, like a kiss. 

"Gotcha," Nephenee said.

"Not just yet---" 

Heather tackled her, and they both fell hard to the damp autumn ground. Heather came right up, but Nephenee had taken the brunt of the fall, and had the air knocked out of her. Her heart took moments to catch up, caught in flutters for a too-smooth thief girl who would skip town the moment some other girl caught her eye.

"Oh dear, did I leave you breathless?" Heather said. She smirked, and pulled Nephenee up. It was several seconds before she could reply to that one, though she supposed her flushed cheeks was enough of a response to Heather.

When she finally did speak, it wasn't to address Heather's flirtations. She was always flirting, half the time it didn't even mean anything, even if a part of her wished it did.

"You're the funniest country gal I ever did meet," Nephenee said.

"Well, I'm more of a small town girl. This is the closest I've gotten to being near a farm, that and occasionally sneaking out to steal sips of milk when the local farm went to deliver."

"You're so bad," Nephenee said fondly.

"Oh, you know it," Heather said.

"You goin' to the festival?" Nephenee said.

"Of course, crowds are always good for business," Heather said.

"I'll be guardin', so don't make me have to haul you in," Nephenee said.

"As fun as that sounds, I promise I'll be extra good," Heather said. She winked, and disappeared behind another pile of leaves.

Nephenee shook her head, and pushed her hair back. Back to cleaning up, it was.

She'd barely gotten her rake up before she felt a stick poking her in the back. She didn't even have to turn around to guess who it was.

*

The moon had risen high for the festival. Life and death were on display, the many produce, the filled offering. Let the spirits be sated another year. Some luck readers had set up shop, including that shop girl who had traveled with them. She had a habit of grabbing the hand of the boys she found most handsome and swearing their destiny and hers entwined. 

Nephenee supposed she couldn't blame a girl for trying to grip ahold of her fate. She never wasted her gold pieces for things like that or fortunes told. Too busy working.

Children went running into the maze of hay bales. They shrieked with laughter at the roar behind them.  
With memories of spirits and feral laguz too deep to be forgotten, Nephenee held a little tighter to her spear. The 'monster' turned, purple and grace, the kind of girl it was hard to forget out of the shadows.

" _Relax_ , Nephenee," Heather said. She pulled off her mask. A spill of golden hair, a lean in, a breath caught.

She had two apple deserts on a stick, glazed in honey and sugar, cooked until warm with spiced apple cider. 

"I wouldn't want a cute girl like you to spend a night like this alone," Heather said. She threw her arm over Nephenee's shoulder.

"Think of the bright side, I can't be picking anymore pockets if you're right here," Heather said.

She took a bite of the crisp apple. The stars hung low, cold through the clouds. She saw no ghosts, but all the tales told the spirits were nearest now. She felt no cold with Heather huddled so close to her, her apple sweet breath intermingling with Nephenee's.

She had no wish to make to the spirits, except to not be that much of a fool. She didn't think even the Goddess could help her on that one.

*

Her brothers were out late in the fields, her other family members with Brom, helping him tend his fields. She'd stayed with Meemaw, who was too ornery for her own good, and hated to be helped. Just last year she'd caught a cold that lasted weeks and they could barely keep her rested, so willing was she to work through it.

Meemaw ignored the years, or that time could have made her more frail. 

Now she was nursing a cough which she refused to treat except for shots of whisky in her tea. Nephenee made herself useful, cooking when she could, getting things before she was asked.

Meemaw could only live for so long. One day her determination would waver, and everything would catch up to her.

"Should I start the soup?"

"Nah, they're likely eatin' at Brom's house. You know his wife won't let them go without fillin' their bellies."

A knock sounded at the door. Could they be home already? Maybe Harold forgot his shovel again. He was always forgetting things.

"I'll get it," Nephenee said.

Heather came in wreathed in a dark cloak, her boots stained with mud. She pushed her hood back, the firelight soft across her face. Her house was nothing special, the woodwork, the stains of spilled seeds and feed, the swept bare floor and few chairs. 

Still, there was a little thought inside her that Heather would look down at this place, so different from the castles she'd stayed in.

But Heather only looked at her, and with no derision. 

"I told you I'd pay all of you back," Heather said.

She held out a white jewel in her hands. Nephenee could only stare, struck by the sheer sparkle and sheen, the knowledge that nothing this expensive had ever been anywhere near her. They could buy new pastures, a new cow, all of this year's feed, and still have enough for a sizable nest egg put away.

She whetted her lips. "But this is much more than a couple apples," she said, always honest to a fault. Her family never let her be the one to sell, because she'd take all the bad bargains, and give away produce to anyone who even looked a little worn and hungry.

"It's not like I stole it from a priest, that jerk thought he could feel me up without consequences. If you you'd rather have it in gold, I know a few brokers who are good for keeping their mouths shut. I'd be happy to do it for you," she said.

Nephenee's jaw set. Her spear was left against the wall, but had he been nearer, had he been in her sights, she'd have made him look like aged cheese.

At least she knew Heather fixed him good. She never let such things just lie.

"Take it, Nephenee. Your sense of honor will put us in the poorhouse yet," Meemaw said.

Meemaw turned her sharp gaze on Heather again.

"You goin' to marry Nephenee, or you goin' to go break her heart?"

"Meemaw!"

"You want me to ruin her reputation? A marriage this quick would have tongues waggling about how there's a bun in the oven," Heather said.

"...I hardly think that'd be what they said," Nephenee said.

"They would when I showed up with the children I stole," Heather said.

"Stealin' children? Now, Heather, I turned my head at you takin' a lot of things, but _children_ \---"

"From street corners, from orphanages, I'm not about to break into houses and take the children right out of their cradles," Heather said.

"Oh, that's different. It ain't stealin', it's _takin' care of_ ," Nephenee said.

Heather shrugged. "Same difference."

With a smug glance at Meemaw, Heather put her arm about Nephenee's shoulder.

"Next time, I'll steal you an entire castle," Heather said. She put out her hand, like she was painting out their rosy future together. What little resolve and reminder _she does this to everyone, don't you let that flutter overtake you_ fell away. Down like autumn leaves, down, down.

"That's pretty hard to put in your pocket," Nephenee said.

"You've just got to believe in more impossible things, Nephenee," Heather said. "Like me."

"You tell a great tall tale, but you've been moonin' after queens. I ain't goin' to keep your gaze for more than a fortnight," Nephenee said.

She kissed Nephenee's cheek, uncaring that Meemaw was right there. Smelling like fall and cold weather, a hint of apples and spice. 

"It's okay, I'm here to stay. I promised mother I wouldn't go too far this time. And with someone as cute and sweet as you, who else can compare? Besides, I like a challenge," Heather said.

"Provin' yourself trustworthy is some challenge," Meemaw said.

Nephenee couldn't help but laugh a little. Heather looked like she'd sucked on something sour and bitter, full of determination to prove them wrong.

"I'm going to steal a whole cart full of babies for that, just to prove you wrong," Heather said.

"You're a real funny gal, Heather," Nephenee said. "But I sure do like it."

And then, she stole a kiss of her own. She hoped Heather would win overall, prove them all wrong, even she showed up with a whole parcel of orphans and a castle she'd just somehow happened to slip into her pocket.


End file.
